A favorite gun cleaning point of debate: use gun grease or gun oil for best results?
Gun greases and gun oils both work decently as lubricants for firearms, and many gun owners swear by one or the other, with rare agreement on both. In either case, the terms grease and oil are too general. Not only is it important to know what your gun grease or oil is actually made of, it’s important to consider what actual brands are representing themselves to be selling.
Most other PTFE lubes only have trace amounts of particles in their product and are often manufactured with inferior-grade PTFE. Beyond that, a mix of other chemical ingredients make up the final product. So don’t assume that all PTFE lubricants are the same thing. And avoid petroleum-based gun oils or gun greases in favor of all-synthetic gun care products.
When you consider gun grease vs. gun oil for your firearms cleaning you are choosing between a lubricant that leaves an oil finish versus one that leaves a drier, grease-coat finish. But even this distinction blurs, depending on the grease or oil products you are using.
For example, TW25B synthetic gun grease is chemically different than other gun greases because of its synthetic base materials and because it is such a light (Grade-1 grease) formulation with the consistency of cold cream. It’s meant to be polished into the metal not globbed on, and the effect is a drier finish than oil, which attracts less firing debris. And the most effective gun grease or gun oil lubricants don’t just sit on top of the metal — you want a lube product that actually penetrates and treats the metal’s microscopic imperfections.
So grease vs. oil? Think of them as complementary products, different tools for different application needs. What’s your preference? How come?
As a competitive precision pistol and high power rifle shooter, I prefer to use both.
1. Grease does not get onto your shooting glasses.
2. I believe grease last longer than oil. I use a pipe cleaner to apply tiny amounts of grease on slide surfaces then polish with a QTip . You can’t see any globs of grease when I am done. If you shoot a lot and don’t clean you guns, which is very common among .22 shooters, I think the grease will last longer.
3. I use heavier amount of grease on trigger group parts and internal parts that don’t normally get cleaned.
If there are a few globs no worries.
4. I use oil in AR gas rings, bore, and places you can’t get to with grease. I use a 5cc syringe with a needle.
5. Synthetic is better and that is all I use. Mobil 1 offers both a grease and motor oil, that seems to work well and costs next to nothing when used on guns.